CHAPTER 31: 31 A POWERFUL ENEMY IS ON OUR TAIL

EDITOR: ENDLESSFANTASY TRANSLATION

The screen froze. Soon after, new footage began to play.

This time, the setting wasn’t a cramped, enclosed space, but the immense cavern that Wang Lan and the others had entered before.

At the bottom of the cavern, hundreds of Biochemical Demons densely packed the area, while above them on the Sky Bridge, stood a human-looking figure. Next to this person was a wheelchair, upon which sat a man with withered, twisted limbs and a gaunt physique, wearing glasses.

"Doctor, shall we start the live-fire test now?"

"Only by passing through the crucible of war and enduring its trials can one become a qualified warrior."

"But... controlling five hundred Demon Soldiers at once..." the middle-aged man behind him voiced his concern.

"A qualified Demon General must control at least ten thousand Demon Soldiers. A mere five hundred is a very small number," the doctor said as he slowly extended a hand, swiftly pressing buttons on the console before him.

The heavy doors opened, revealing a colossal figure before Wang Lan and his group.

It was a monstrous creature with the lower body of a spider and the torso of a gigantic Demon Soldier. Its eight sharp spider legs resembled eight menacing Mantis Blades. Its upper body, though humanoid, was twice the size of a normal Demon Soldier.

Its appearance alone sent a clear message: it was not to be trifled with.

Upon the Demon General’s appearance, the Demon Soldiers suddenly knelt in unison. Their movements were orderly and disciplined, like well-trained elite troops.

"What are they preparing to do? Launch an attack on the trial site’s military garrison? But... there have been no reports of attacks on the trial site for three years, right?"

"Maybe the military suppressed the news?"

"Move out! Annihilate the Star Martial Army!"

"ROAR—"

"WHOOP! WHOOP! WHOOP!" Suddenly, a red alert began to blare.

"What’s happening?" The Doctor’s face turned pale as he cried out.

"The Demon General’s consciousness is starting to rebel! The controller is struggling to regain control..."

"Mental connection severed. Initiate forced connection?"

"Initiate forced connection. The controller’s mind is being eroded by the Demon General: twenty percent... fifty percent... seventy percent..."

"Quick, seal it—"

ROAR—

A loud roar echoed. Suddenly, the Demon General leaped up, its massive claws striking down fiercely onto the Sky Bridge where the Doctor was. The video clearly showed the Doctor, along with the person pushing his wheelchair, being slashed to pieces by the sharp claws.

This scene was inexplicably shocking, yet also strangely exhilarating.

No one expected the experiment to fail so spectacularly; the apparent main villain of the story met such an early and unexpected end.

The alarm continued to blare. "Biochemical Demon Soldiers are rioting! Combat units, engage and suppress immediately!" Then, BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!—

After that, the video went completely dark.

No more experimental records appeared.

The atmosphere suddenly fell deathly silent; only a few heavy breaths were audible.

"The Demon Clan’s fifth-generation Biochemical Demon Soldiers... was it a failure or a success?" After a long while, Xu Xiangwen asked doubtfully.

"I don’t know. The last records are from a year ago. But... with the Doctor leading the Biochemical Demon Soldier project dead, the project likely ground to a halt, didn’t it?"

"Was the Demon Soldiers’ riot successfully suppressed? Did they kill all the Demons at the base?" Wang Youle asked anxiously.

"Don’t ask such stupid questions. If the riot hadn’t been suppressed, do you think this base would still be here? It would have been discovered long ago, right? The riot must have been successfully suppressed. However, the Doctor’s death likely forced the project to halt, which is why the base was sealed and the Demon Clan retreated," Jiang Xinyu analyzed coldly.

"Ice Snow, has the data copy been completed?"

"It finished a long time ago."

"Good!" Jiang Xinyu unplugged the USB drive, transformed it back into a necklace, and put it on. "Let’s go to the Star Martial Army’s command headquarters."

Xu Xiangwen activated his watch to pull up the map. "The military command headquarters is only ten kilometers from here. We can cut through the Wind Valley to reach it."

The group retraced their steps out of the cave. The Flaming Leopards in the valley had retreated, and the Gale Wolves from the opposite gorge entrance had also left.

As they walked on, Wang Youle hesitated several times before finally speaking in a low voice, "Um... there are still four days left in the trial period... Reporting this to the Star Martial Army might lead them to seal off the trial site. Why don’t we collect some Soul Beads for a few days first? Since the Demon Clan sealed the base, they must have already left."

"This discovery is too urgent to ignore. There are still dozens of Biochemical Demon Soldiers lying in the incubation pods, and any single one of them could cause immense casualties among the Trialists. Don’t you understand the gravity of the situation?" Jiang Xinyu rebuked Wang Youle without any courtesy. Perhaps this was her true nature.

Wang Lan scratched his chin in confusion. Could it be that the reasonable Jiang Xinyu I thought I knew was a facade?

「Not long after Wang Lan’s group departed, two figures appeared in the gorge.」

Upon seeing the huge crater blasted into the middle of the gorge, their faces turned ashen.

"Damn it, how could we not have realized this spot was so thin... We’ve been discovered."

"They haven’t been gone long. I’ll go alert the leader; you go kill them."

"Okay!"

Jiang Xinyu and her two companions were still engaged in a heated discussion about the Biochemical Demon Soldiers, analyzing from every angle the odds of human Star Martial Warriors winning if they confronted them.

Biochemical Demon Soldiers were ultimate weapons of war, created solely for battle. Those below the Star Shine Stage had no advantage against them.

The conclusion of their discussion was bleak: under equal conditions, human Star Martial Warriors had no advantage whatsoever. Against equal numbers, annihilation would be inevitable. Their only hope was that the project had been permanently shelved due to the doctor’s death. Otherwise, it would be a nightmare for humanity.

Wang Youle silently followed the squad without joining the discussion, like a ghost lingering outside the group. The reason Wang Lan wasn’t participating was that a red ’Task in Progress’ notification had suddenly appeared in his system.

This ’Task in Progress’ notification had appeared before, when the bus entered the Different Dimensional Space. At the time, Wang Lan thought he hadn’t heard the alert sound due to his nerves. But now, it seemed the system didn’t issue any audible alert when accepting tasks.

It seemed to be triggered entirely by Wang Lan’s current situation—whatever predicament he faced could potentially activate a task.

"Hey, Wang Lan, what are you thinking about? You’ve been so glum this whole time," Xu Xiangwen’s voice interrupted Wang Lan’s thoughts.

"Nothing much. Listening to you guys is quite insightful. After hearing what you all said, I feel like the past ten-plus years of my life were lived in vain. You’re all experts; as a newbie, I should just listen quietly."

"Get lost!"

"Men should be more magnanimous..." Jiang Xinyu said to Wang Lan out of nowhere. Then, with a haughty toss of her hair, she turned and continued walking forward.

Heh... If you hadn’t reminded me, I would have almost forgotten. Jiang Xinyu, I didn’t expect you to have such a weird quirk, Wang Lan thought, though he didn’t dare say it aloud.

Suddenly, the five of them stopped in their tracks. Around the corner of the cliff ahead, a man with purple hair swaggered out. The five hadn’t encountered a single Trialist on their journey. The sudden appearance of this man instantly put them on high alert.

"I thought you’d be much farther by now. You made me waste half an hour," the man said with a laugh, his tone familiar. Instantly, Wang Lan and the others tensed up.

"This is bad! Signal now!" Wang Lan hastily ordered.

While speaking, he took out a signal flare from the side of his backpack. Just as he was about to launch it, a strong sense of crisis surged from below. Wang Lan quickly retreated backward.

A figure burst from the ground, a streak of blade light swept past where Wang Lan had just stood. Just as Wang Lan regained his footing, the figure quickly closed in, slashing at him.

He hastily drew the spare saber Gong Feiyu had given him, holding it horizontally before him to block the attack.

The person before him looked identical to the one slowly approaching in the distance. In the world of Star Martial Warriors, looking exactly alike didn’t necessarily mean they were twins; it was more likely to be a Physical Clone. Xu Xiangwen could create two Physical Clones, but this skill wasn’t a rare ability.

"Attack—" Jiang Xinyu immediately ordered.

But as the four were about to converge and assist, four figures burst from the purple-haired youth attacking Wang Lan, each intercepting one of them.

The situation flipped in an instant, turning into a five-on-five standoff.

The Physical Clone before Wang Lan continued its relentless assault, its sword skills sharp and swift. Even though his combat prowess far surpassed that of an average Star Shine Stage warrior, Wang Lan was still forced onto the defensive.

Wang Youle, in particular, was wounded in the very first exchange.

Fear appeared in Wang Youle’s eyes. A cruel smile touched the purple-haired youth’s lips as his blade slashed down toward Wang Youle’s head.

"CRACKLE—"

Suddenly, an ice bloom burst from the purple-haired youth’s chest. The descending blade froze just in front of Wang Youle. In an instant, the purple-haired man was covered in frost and turned into an ice sculpture.

"BOOM—"

With a loud blast, the ice sculpture shattered.

But before Jiang Xinyu could catch her breath, the purple-haired man attacked her again.

Jiang Xinyu intended to use the same technique again to deal with the purple-haired man. This time, however, she found that his strength had skyrocketed many times over. She, like Wang Lan, was also drawn into a bitter struggle.

Seeing Wang Youle still in a daze, Wang Lan grew furious. "Wang Youle, are you a damn idiot? Fire the signal flare, quick!—"

"Oh, oh—" Wang Youle fumbled for the signal flare.

The purple-haired man fighting Wang Lan suddenly flickered, and a new clone shot out, instantly appearing before Wang Youle.

Wang Youle quickly raised his blade to defend. CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! The fierce sounds of combat immediately erupted.

Seeing Wang Youle miss the chance to send the signal, Wang Lan’s anger surged. A surge of anger fueled his sharp sword skills. He unleashed them, instantly turning the tables and fighting his opponent on equal footing.

The battle now seemed to hover in a strange balance. Whether it was the strongest, Jiang Xinyu, or the weakest, Wang Youle, each was locked in an intense, evenly matched struggle with their opponent.

But the power differences are so obvious. If they were clones, shouldn’t their strength be evenly divided?

Yet, to Wang Lan, each of the purple-haired man’s clones clearly possessed different levels of strength.

Is the purple-haired man toying with us? Impossible. His killing intent is undoubtedly real; if I reveal any opening, he’ll definitely deliver a fatal blow.

Then why is this happening? Is he displaying different levels of strength tailored to each of us? From my own experience, the clone that first attacked me seemed slightly stronger than this current one.

While his hands were busy with the fierce combat, his mind raced, rapidly analyzing the situation.

After several seconds, a spark of understanding lit up Wang Lan’s eyes.

So that’s how it is. I understand now.